Solving society's Big Impossible-seeming problems
How do we solve society's most pressing, impossible-seeming problems? ... e.g. climate crisis, partisan gridlock, wars, budget priorities, etc. ... At the Center for Wise Democracy we offer a new, out-of-the-box solution strategy, a way to involve "all" the citizens, achieve breakthrough progress, build trust and the spirit of community, and generate a new system of "wise democracy". Below, see the social innovations, which make this possible.
4 social innovations
- Choice-creating ....Choice-creating is a particular quality of conversation well-suited to solving "impossible problems". Unlike processes that try to be dispassionate and rational, in choice-creating feelings, concerns, solution ideas, information, etc. arise spontaneously, and a new clarity emerges. Often, there are shifts and breakthroughs ... or we "just know" what to do. "Choice-creating" is like "decision-making" in that we reach a conclusion and set of actions, but it's process is opposite. One is based on judgment. The other on creativityIt's. Both processes are needed for "Wise Democracy." (See the chart comparing decision-making and choice-creating.)
- Dynamic Facilitation … Dynamic Facilitation is a way to facilitate groups of people into the spirit of choice-creating, where they face an ill-defined, emotionally charged, impossible-seeming issue and reach rapid unity through shifts and breakthroughs. This is a way make breakthrough progress on impossible-seeming issues, reach unity, and bring diverse people together as "We". (See the chart comparing Dynamic Facilitation with traditional facilitation.)
- The Wisdom Council Process… The Wisdom Council Process is a way to facilitate a very large system of people into the spirit of choice-creating where all the doctors of an hospital, for instance, start seeking what's best for all. Every few months a small group of 8-16 people are randomly selected from a large system and brought together. They are dynamically facilitated to face a difficult, impossible-seeming issue and reach unity. They report the the story of how they reached their conclusions and disband. This presentation evokes an additional new conversation in the organization, community, state or wherever it is applied. (See Three forms of Public Engagement, a chart comparing Wisdom Councils to other forms of public engagement.)
- Society's Breakthrough ... To society's most pressing problems we need to facilitate the whole of society as one, like the citizens of a nation or the world, to think together as "We the People". The "Wisdom Council Process" uses a series of randomly selected citizens, plus Dynamic Facilitation, to spark this ongoing whole-system choice-creating conversation. Here's an accessible, facilitative way to transform governance, economics, and culture to a new level of collective intelligence and "solve" many impossible-seeming public issues. ... Of course, we haven't done this yet, but there have been nation-wide experiments in Austria, plus the Wisdom Council Process has been used in every state of that country. So we have good reason to know this process can work to create a legitimate powerful "We the People".
Video introduction to Wise Democracy (12 min)
Deeper look at each of the social innovations
See the free 5-part video seminar "Essential Wisdom for solving society's biggest problems"
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We are a 501-c3 organization.